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Joy Dewing and Noel Katz By JAMES BARRON Published: October 19, 2003 HE had resisted the temptation to cast himself in the first 11 musicals he wrote that were produced, including the one that a reviewer described as "Agatha Christie meets Gilbert and Sullivan." But Noel Katz, 43, had a starring role in his 12th, a brisk one-act show called "Our Wedding: The Musical." He wrote it for his marriage on Oct. 12 to Joy Dewing, 29, a musical-theater coloratura he met in a theater-related Internet chat room six years ago. "We shared the same geeky enthusiasm for musical theater," recalled Ms. Dewing, who was living with her mother in Scotland, Md., at the time. The chat-room exchanges covered audition plans, theatrical trivia, even memories of a college class in which Ms. Dewing had to identify musical elements in "Sweeney Todd" and other Broadway shows. "Later," she said, "he told me that was when he fell in love with me." Like characters in an updated version of "She Loves Me" ("except that we never hated each other," Ms. Dewing said), they found their correspondence becoming more personal. After Ms. Dewing visited Mr. Katz in Manhattan, the couple began an eight-month long-distance relationship, which culminated with Ms. Dewing moving to New York. Soon he wrote a song that became the centerpiece of her cabaret show. "That experience," Mr. Katz said, "led me to believe we could do the whole wedding as a musical." He proposed in December 2001, while she was touring in "My Fair Lady." And so he went to work. "Our Wedding: The Musical" had its one and only performance before 150 guests at the SoHo Playhouse in New York. The stage was bare except for an electronic keyboard. Several in the cast of 14 were family members, including the couple's parents, none of whom had ever sung in public. The show had some up-tempo numbers and raffishly rhymed riffs, but it had no showstopper about getting to the church on time and no real drama. From the opening, it was clear that the leading man, Mr. Katz in a black cutaway, and the leading lady, Ms. Dewing in a white top with a short white and red skirt, would end up with each other. They became husband and wife onstage about halfway through the performance. Naturally, the Rev. Matthew Hamel, the Baptist minister who officiated at the legally binding performance, had a long list of theatrical credits, including "My Fair Lady" with Ms. Dewing. But this was his first role written to order. "Noel took lots of notes," Mr. Hamel said, "and was very cautious, asking me, `What do you want to do? What do you have to do?' I told him I do need to ask if they take each other in marriage and I have to hear them say, `I do.' " But Mr. Hamel said one timeworn line was not required, the one about speaking up against the union now or forever holding your peace. That was not what Mr. Katz wanted to hear. "He was like, `I want to use it as a joke," Mr. Hamel said, and Mr. Katz did, in a four-line recitative that brought down the house when Mr. Hamel sang it. If there's anybody here who Knows any reason these two Should not be married You better have a damn good song ready! As for Ms. Dewing's solo, she rejected the first three versions that Mr. Katz wrote. "What he'd been trying to do before was write a big showcase for me," she said. "I pointed out that's not really necessary. It doesn't have to show my entire range as a performer, it just has to express my feelings." The fourth version, "This Man Loves Me," written 10 days before the wedding, fit the bill: This man's a port in a storm I ain't never gonna feel I'm friendless He is cool, and a whiz at keeping me warm He makes the winter summer, and the summer endless. |
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